No Through Road (web series)

Short film (2009) No Through Road follows footage of several seventeen-year-old boys purportedly found dead in their car ten miles from their hometown. In the series, while driving to Stevenage, after taking a shortcut via a private "no through road" at the abandoned Broomhall Farm at night, and finding a perfectly preserved rabbit during a rest stop at the side of the road, the boys unwittingly find themselves trapped in a time loop along two road signs marking an intersection between Benington and Watton, while pursued by a mysterious hatted masked man. Web series (2011–2012) James, the sole survivor of the mass murder, comes back to pay tribute to his now deceased friends accompanied by another friend, Dave. But after paying tribute, similar events take place, and a familiar face reappears, along with an all too recognisable masked assailant stalking them. ==Episodes==

Short film (2009) Web series (2011–2012) ==Development==

In November 2020, Steven Chamberlain publicly revealed himself as the director, writer, and co-star of No Through Road, with his cast and crew having initially remained uncredited to maintain the illusion of the original 2009 short film and 2011–2012 web series continuation being legitimate found footage, In a separate interview in March 2022, ==Reception==

Critical response Critical reception for No Through Road has been universally positive. On the original video's initial publication, El Gore lauded the filmmakers' "admirable dedication to passing the video off as actual found footage: after an extensive Google search, the El Gore team concluded that there's no information about its production available on the Internet. We have no idea who made this film or who stars in it, which certainly adds to the subliminal creep factor", further complimenting the "acting [a]s excellent, the conversation[s] feel[ing] natural, [and] the tension [being] palpable[:] as good as it gets in the genre and medium", as well as the use of Gillian Welch's "My First Lover" (sampled from the 2008 film The Strangers) as an "infinitely creepy record loop on the radio", alongside other clips added randomly throughout the film, as "greatly enhanc[ing] the eerie atmosphere" of the film, and concluding to describe the "spine-chilling short [as] undoubtedly one of the best low-budget horror films I've [ever] seen". In 2020, CoryxKenshin reacted to the original short film and applauded heavily for its creepy and terrifying sound design. In 2023 IShowSpeed reacted to the short film and was terrified by the ending and actually believed that it was a real snuff film uploaded by the government. In 2020, famous youtuber Jacksepticeye reacted to the short film and also applauded the series and hoped that the people who made the video had a good career in film in their later lives. The Ghost in My Machine lauded No Through Road as "tak[ing] the phrase "hopelessly lost" to a whole new level", with Refinery29 complimenting the series' use of screams, recommending it to be watched to "keep you up at night" with a blanket (to scream into). While recognising the series' "quarter of a shoestring" budget and "deeply bizarre" premise, Film School Rejects nonetheless praised No Through Road as "deliver[ing] some very nice chills", noting the use of a slow burn while complimenting the acting of the films "British teens [as] feel[ing] far less annoying than American ones", concluding to sum up the first installment as "a spooky little film that feels a bit like a campfire tale". Bustle described the "weird-o" series as "a masterful example of excellent storytelling done on a tiny budget, exemplifying the fact that you don't need a ton of money to make a really freaky movie", with "the first video [standing] alone quite well" and instilling a feeling of "never want[ing] to drive home at night again". Ranking the series as the best English Web Series existing as of 2018, Medium lauded the "shocking ending of the first episode" and its "unsettled" feeling, overall describing No Through Road as "a pretty cool and interesting web series that seamlessly weaves into a found footage film". TREMG described the series as "an absolute must-see if you're a fan of found-footage-style horror", with the "camerawork and acting put into this project [being] extremely impressive, making it worth a watch as you get into the Halloween spirit", with Postize giving the series an 8/10 on their "Disturbance Factor". Ranking the series as the second on their 2021 list of "The Best Original Horror On YouTube", Looper complimented all four installments of No Through Road as "wonderfully creepy videos that will satisfy anyone hungry for horror", with Horror Obsessive praising its "incredibly effective [use of] basically nothing but dialogue and a few spooky shots" throughout the series. ==Other media==

The audio commentary of the 2012 Canadian supernatural horror film Grave Encounters 2, directed by John Poliquin and written by The Vicious Brothers, credits the film's closing kill — in which a character (Leanne Lapp) is beaten to death with a video camera, from the first-person perspective of the camera — to the filmmakers having seen the same event take place in No Through Road, and having been impressed by the concept enough to adapt it (amongst allusions to several other popular horror films). On the director's commentary for In Fear, a 2013 British psychological horror film written and directed by Jeremy Lovering, Lovering accredited No Through Road (for which Chamberlain was originally uncredited) as the primary source of inspiration for the film's main plot and premise, which follows a young couple (Iain De Caestecker and Alice Englert) as they find themselves trapped in a loop between two road signs in the Irish countryside at night, while pursued by an unknown masked assailant (Allen Leech). An unauthorised Swedish-language remake of the series, directed by Tobias Ohlsson, was nominated for the "Best Experimental Horror Film Award" at the Oregon Scream Week Horror Film Festival in late 2019. == See also ==